Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I am going through a fish phase since I discovered that I can easily run to the Queen Vic during the lunch hour to be the best fish imaginable. I have been wanting to make something with fresh tuna for a while and I figured the classic nicoise salad would be ideal. I bought some really nice yellow fin tuna steaks and seared it quickly before tossing it into the salad.

I had all the ingredients for the nicoise salad except for the actual nicoise olives and dijon mustard. So I improvised a little with the dressing. I decided to marinate the tuna in the salad dressing and since my new thyme was growing rather nicely, I thought I would make the dressing a combination of thyme and lemon zest.

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This must be the first time ever that I’m blogging about tonight’s dinner. I’m so impressed with it I feel like I have to write about it now. Generally, I only put successful cooking attempts up here so please don’t take it the wrong way when I keep saying this recipe rocks my socks. I usually get very excited when a cooking attempt (especially one where I didn’t consult any recipe) turns out well.

I bought a really nice piece of sashimi-grade salmon from Queen Victoria Market on Thursday, intending to turn it into sashimi to serve with cold somen. That didn’t work out because I ended up forgetting the fish in the work fridge and so it ended up being a day old and I just wasn’t sure if I should be eating a day old fish raw. Since we went out for such a huge meal last I wanted something simple so I decided on steaming it. I have had it a few times in Chinese restaurants and I thought I could try to replicate it. Read the rest of this entry »

I have had this dish a couple of times over the past months: at Pasta Rustica on Lygon St. and then at Gross Florentino: The Grill. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but really, my version kicked ass!

This is really an adaptation of what I think the dish should be like rather than following any specific recipe.

For 4 servings (well we finished these for lunch but we had seconds):

1. 3/4 kg. of very fresh, preferably live, vongole*
2. 250g. of thin spaghetti or spaghettini
3. 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4. 2-3 salted anchovies in oil
5. 1 ripe tomato, chopped
6. 2 shallots, finely sliced
7. 2 stalks of spring onions, finely sliced
8. 1/2 tsp of dried chilli flakes
9. A few twists of black pepper
10. 1/4 cup of booze, preferrably white wine but I didn’t have any so I used shao hsing.
11. 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
12. 2 stalks of fresh parsley, chopped

Rinse the clams in plenty of cold water to remove the grit. Or ask your fishmonger how you should clean them (I think it depends how much cleaning they have already done on them) Cook the pasta. Heat up a big pot (you need room to toss around later) with 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add chopped garlic, shallots and the white parts of the spring onions. Add the anchovies. Turn the heat down to medium high and stir around a bit until the anchovies fall apart. Add tomato, chilli flakes and some freshly ground pepper and stir. Read the rest of this entry »

This is really basic but since I’ve been on about Thai food I might as well throw this in. As you may be aware (or not) that I am currently in love with my local fish monger (it’s an accent thing) and I have been buying some really good crustaceans and shellfish from them over the past weeks.

Josh is unfortunately not into crabs (and crustaceans in general. Lobsters had been wasted on him) the way I am. He’s just generally not mad about seafood like I am. So on a Saturday night when I was home alone, I cooked myself a seafood feast for one. Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend I had an inspiration from my newly acquired Food of Spain book and that inspiration is the seafood paella. Before I launch into the making of this paella, guys, this was so seriously good. It’s just one of those things that surprise you how good it is. The reason it was oh-so-good was because I had access to one of the best fish mongers in Melbourne. So try to get a hold of the best prawns, crabs and mussels that you can or move to my fabulous suburb.

The inspiration came from Food Safari’s Paella on the Spanish episode in the first season, which I have on DVD but naturally I went about it my own way.

I used a standard frying pan – no paella pan but it worked just as well.

For 2-3 people: Read the rest of this entry »